Svetlana Makarova on Why AI Isn’t Delivering P&L Impact

Svetlana Makarova, AVP of AI Technical Product Management at IKS Health, joins Imran Mian on Behind the Growth to break down what’s actually happening inside organizations trying to adopt AI. She starts by outlining a fragmented landscape where some companies move quickly due to internal capability, while others struggle with change management and foundational readiness before AI can even be applied. 

From there, Svetlana challenges how AI progress is measured; while many reports highlight productivity gains and positive sentiment, she explains that most organizations are not seeing direct business impact because they are not changing underlying workflows. Instead, they are accelerating existing work using copilots and SaaS tools, without rethinking how work gets done or tying initiatives to meaningful outcomes. 

The conversation then shifts to where AI efforts stall. Svetlana points to people, skills, and organizational alignment as the primary blockers, not technology. Teams are often asked to implement AI without sufficient fluency, while leadership expectations are disconnected from execution realities. This creates friction across data, governance, and adoption efforts, with resistance and uncertainty playing a major role. 

Looking ahead, she outlines what it takes to move forward. Workforce readiness depends less on technical fluency and more on judgment, domain expertise, and practical application. AI transformation happens gradually, starting with small use cases, building institutional capability, and evolving toward deeper workflow changes over time. 

Svetlana breaks down topics like: 
- What causes fragmentation in AI adoption 
- Why AI isn’t hitting P&L  
- Where AI initiatives actually stall  
- What skills matter more than AI  
- Why AI transformation feels slow 

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